Tech

Oh joy, it's your elected officials rambling on about cryptocurrency

Look, cryptocurrency is complicated. We get it. What with all the different coins, tokens, ICOs, exchanges, scams, protocols, and DApps, it's borderline impossible for the casual observer to keep it all straight.

And so, with that in mind, let us now turn to approximately three combined hours of our elected officials rambling on about the blockchain and our decentralized future.

"We should prohibit US persons from buying or mining cryptocurrencies."

"This hearing will shed light on the promise of digital assets and the regulatory challenges facing this new asset class," committee chairman Rep. K. Michael Conaway of Texas (R-Texas) explained. "Our committee has a deep interest in promoting strong markets for commodities of all types, including those emerging through new technology."

But that wasn't the only fun to be had today. Later in the afternoon, the House Financial Services Committeemet to "examine the extent to which the United States government should consider cryptocurrencies as money and the potential domestic and global uses for cryptocurrencies."

And what did we learn from this esteemed group? Well, for starters, that bitcoin's got to go.

"We should prohibit U.S. persons from buying or mining cryptocurrencies," Rep. Brad Sherman of (D-Calif.) blasted from the podium. "Mining alone uses electricity which takes away from other needs and-or adds to the carbon footprint. As a store, as a medium of exchange, cryptocurrency accomplishes nothing except facilitating narcotics trafficking, terrorism, and tax evasion."

Good ol' Sherman.

Image: screenshot/house financial services committee

Did you catch that? Mining uses electricity, and therefore should be banned.

But not everyone agreed with Sherman. Conaway, in his closing statements, seemed to argue in favor of bitcoin — at least as opposed to more privacy-focused cryptocurrency like Monero or Zcash.

"As long as the stupid criminals keep using bitcoin, we'll be great," he observed when commenting on the pseudonymous nature of bitcoin.

Rep. Rick Allen: "We're creating another money supply here as I see it. I just don't know how that works. Our dollar sets the mark for the world. I can't visualize how this would work." #CryptoCongress

Other fun gems include Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) admitting that "there's a lot of things here that don't make much sense to me." And yet, Peterson actually seemed to have some relevant statistics at hand, like the fact that "over 80 percent of the initial coin offerings are scams."

Good on you, Peterson.

Over all, the two hearings painted a picture of our elected officials attempting to wrap their heads around this brave new cryptoworld. And hey, that's a good thing. Everyone has to start somewhere.

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